THE LAST MISSION SHIP
The Last Mission Ship - Part One is the first of a three-part book series. Part Two will be the history of Missionaries and their ships of the South Pacific and Part Three being the history, restoration and relaunch of the MV Stephen Davies itself.
The MV Stephen Davies is the last Missionary ship ever built to work under sail for Australian, New Guinea and South Pacific Missions.
Part One is available as an ebook, instantly downloaded. However we plan to have Part Two and Three in digital and hard copy. Your purchase of Part One will allow us to get started on Part Two and also raise awareness of our restoration challenges of the MV Stephen Davies.
Your purchase will help complete The Last Mission Ship - Part Two and also raise funds and awareness of her restoration and preservation over the next few years.
about THIS BOOK?
Before time, the quest of the Missionaries was to bring Christianity to the Islands of the South Seas and challenge the dark practices of the so-called heathens and their warfare, sorcery and black magic, headhunting and cannibalism.
For centuries, these practices plagued Indigenous people in the South Pacific including the Australian mainland, Torres Strait, Papua, New Guinea, New Hebrides (Vanuatu) and the Solomon Islands.
The Last Mission Ship - Part One is the first of a three-part book series. Part Two will be the history of Missionaries and their ships of the South Pacific and Part Three being the history, restoration and relaunch of the MV Stephen Davies itself.
The MV Stephen Davies is the last Missionary ship ever built to work under sail for Australian, New Guinea and South Pacific Missions.
MV Stephen Davies was built in Brisbane in 1951 for the Anglican Church's Cape York and Torres Strait mission agency, the Australian Board of Missions and named after the third Bishop of Carpentaria, the Right Reverend Stephen Davies.
The Last Mission Ship - Part One is aimed at gaining support for her ongoing restoration and return to service in 2024. MV Stephen Davies needs your help.
If there are no mission ships left,
THEIR MEMORY will be left In books, PHOTOS and
models on THE SHELVES OF OUR ancestors
The Last Mission Ship - Part One, has been produced on behalf of the Saltwater Club with the aim of raising awareness of what is the last Mission Vessel built for sail in Australian and South Sea waters - the 72 year old MV Stephen Davies.
MV Stephen Davies is the last Missionary Ship built under sail for Australia's last frontier Missions, dotted throughout remote Cape York and the Torres Strait.
MV Stephen Davies may also well be the last sailing Missionary Ship surviving in the South Seas.
MV Stephen Davies' story, along with the many owners, missionaries, government officials, passengers and crew who stepped aboard her, have a story to tell, long into the next century.
MV Stephen Davies still has a role to play. We need your support to bring one of the last Mission Vessels built under sail, back into service to do some of the good work that she was built for.
Contribute to her restoration fund today!
A recent assessment in March 2023 by the Pearler's Locker team and local shipwrights have assessed MV STEPHEN DAVIES and developed a strategy for her restoration over a period of about 12 months. Don't just buy the book, consider subscribing to her restoration fund by contributing an amound each month. Details below.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike Smith (second from right) is the co-founder of the Saltwater Club, along with his wife Sonia Minniecon. Having spent the last few decades working throughout Cape York, the Torres Strait and Vanuatu, and in particular on the vessels that connect First Nations people in the South Seas.
From Tall Ships, Pearling Luggers and Mission Ships to the voyaging outrigger canoes, Mike has a passion for the past, present and future of maritime cultural heritage and traditions.
With the crew from the Polynesian Voyaging Society and Hokolea, with Master Navigator Nainoa Thompson on the right and the crew of Hokolea in Cairns.